My oh so camera shy son decided to let me take his picture…and he smiled. He usually RUNS when he sees my camera so this is a rare shot, the smile makes it dang near a miracle shot.

Sometimes the perfect photo is simply the one captured. This portrait of my son Zachary has some flaws in it, but when you have a child (or adult for that matter) that does not like to be photographed and suddenly they ask you to take their picture…you go with what ya got!

There was no time to set up, no time to worry about this or that, I just had time to grab the camera and start snapping before he walked away.

I was so glad that I had started resetting my camera settings prior to putting my equipment away. I tend to leave the dial on Aperture Priority when I store my gear as that has been a fairly successful quick setting for me at times like this. I changed the white balance to cloudy since it was overcast and was able to start snapping away immediately.

I learned from an ealier mistake that just putting your gear way without at least taking a quick look can be disaterous.

Start a routine of how you store your gear and you will find that it makes the next shoot that much easier to get going.

As a photographer I am always being told to read this book or check out that book. Usually I will try to pick up whatever is recommended and at least glance at it to see if it’s really THE book that I need to read to become a better photographer.

Since I got back in to serious shooting two books have been mentioned repeatedly, Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera and most recently The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters by legendary photographer Joe McNally.

The Moment It Clicks is not just a recommended read by me, but a true MUST HAVE!! Every photographer, from the new adopters with a simple point and shoot to the most seasoned pro, should OWN this book. This is not a book you read, this is a book you experience.

I will admit to you, I am writing this review without having actually read the book. Simply, I can’t just sit down and read this…it’s not that kind of book.

Each page contains a tip from Joe, be it something he picked up shooting for National Geographic or something he picked up as a photographer at the New York Daily News or just some simple idea that seems obvious once you read it, but just never really entered your mind. Along with each tip is a quick story and photo with how the photo was taken at the end. But these aren’t your usual stories, many of these are inside industry info that one would get if they were out in the field shooting in, oh let’s say Antartica for a Time magazine feature, and got a request from a photo editor.

In the past two weeks since I bought this book I have found myself just picking it up and opening to a page and starting from there. I have a Post-It pad next to the book so I can sticky those tips that I want to remember…my book is now FULL of sticky notes.

Seriously, this is not a book that I received for review, this is a book that I went out and purchased with my hard-earned money and it was worth every penny. I give this book 4 out of 4 stars…10 out of 10…whatever rating system you want to use, The Moment It Clicks rates tops!

Photography is all about light. Exposing a sensor or strip of film to light is how an image is made. So one can only imagine the number of books written covering this very subject. Add one more to the pile with O’Reilly’s Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers (Practical Artistry) by Harold Davis.

This book is specifically geared toward the digital photographer, but almost all the ideas can be used for old school film photogs as well.

The book covers a lot of topics including evaluation of light, aperture and shutter speed and an explanation of ISO. There are also chapters on using a digital darkroom and some post processing tips.

Overall the book does a fine job of explaining the basic techniques of lighting and exposure, but it really does try to cover a bit too much. The book does not go in too much detail on any one aspect which left me wanting a lot more.

Understandably the book is a light read with some amazing images (and each image has a brief explanation of settings used to achieve the image) and a good refresher for someone who already has a grasp of lighting and exposure, but if you are looking for a good starting point on lighting and exposure, this may not be the book for you.